The Internet is filled with many different types of content, such as text, video, audio, and so forth. Many sources produce content, such as traditional media outlets (e.g., news sites), individual bloggers, retail stores, manufacturers of products, and so forth. Some web sites aggregate information from other sites. For example, using a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, a web site author can make content available for other sites or users to consume, and an aggregating site can consume various RSS feeds to provide aggregated content.
The production of content is time consuming and often costs money. Internet content is monetized in various ways. For example, traditional news sites may pay authors a salary to write articles just as they formerly did for newspapers and other print media. Similarly, a television news station may make audiovisual content available on its website that provides clips of its television shows that are monetized via interstitial ads and/or display ads on the containing page. Individual bloggers often monetize their content by hosting advertisements provided by content-based advertising providers. For example, a blog author may reserve a fixed size rectangle on a portion of his web site and embed an advertising provider's script or control to populate the rectangle with advertisements related to the page content upon access of the page by a reader. This model works well where the content author is displaying the content on a site under her control.
Unfortunately, an author that is an excellent producer of content does not always have the best access to channels for distributing the content. Likewise, distributors of content do not always have access to the best content to distribute. However, authors are often concerned about how to provide content to a distributor (e.g., an aggregation site) in a manner that will allow the author to receive appropriate credit for the content and even to profit from the content through monetary rewards. Once an author's content is displayed on a site that is not under the control of the author, the author also loses control of the advertisements and other revenue streams associated with the content. An author may not trust a distributor to provide the author with a fair share of any revenue derived from the attention and readership that the author's content garners for the distributor. An author may also not want his content shown on a particular site regardless of monetization (e.g., Disney content or political videos on an explicit adult site). Thus, monetizing content on the web is an ongoing concern, particularly for content authors.